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ANIMAL MAGNETISM 



AND 



HYPNOTISM, 



BY 



L. H. S T E I N E R , A. M., M. D. 



From the Mercersburg Review, April 1861. 



CHAMBERSBURG, PA: 

M. KIEFFER & CO'S. CALORIC PRINTING PRESS. 
1861. 



ANIMAL MAGNETISM 



AND 



HYPNOTISM 



BY 



L. H. S T E I N E R , A. M., M. D. 



From the Mfercersbijr^ .Re.yiew, April. 1861.. 



CHAMBERSBURG, PA: 

M. KIEFFER & CO's, CALORIC PRINTING TSESS. 
1861. 






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The student of science is rarely in a position to explain 
the real nature of a pseudo-science, when first brought be- 
fore the public. He is as likely to ignore the truth which 
it contains, as to denounce the falsehoods which, super- 
posed on the truth, constitute it charlatanry. Time is re- 
quired to solve the mystery, and the next generation finds 
that a comparatively easy task, which had been a Hercu- 
lean labor to its predecessor. In no pretended science has 
this been better demonstrated than in Animal Magnetism, 
or Mesmerism, as it was called after Antoine Mesmer — its 
founder. The cause of some of the phenomena, which 
could not be classed under the general head of deception, 
was not even suspected until decades of years had passed 
away. We are now put in a position, where it is some- 
what easy to investigate these through the aids, with which 
modern science has supplied us. Figuier has presented us 
with an excellent resume of all the facts in the history of 
Animal Magnetism, and we propose to avail ourselves free- 
ly of those in the few pages we shall devote to the subject. 
It becomes the medical profession never to shun an exam- 
ination ; yet slow and careful deliberation must be employ- 
ed before we give the result of such an examination, lest, 
in our haste, we may do irreparable injury to the cause of 
truth itself. Festina lente is a useful motto in scientific, 
as well as other pursuits. 

Antoine Mesmer first appeared before the world, through 
the columns of a Danish journal, in a letter which obscure- 
ly set forth the doctrines that afterwards swelled up to the 
large proportions and gigantic pretensions of Animal Mag- 



* Histoire du Merveilleux dans les temps modernes par Louis Figuier, 
Tome Troisieme-vLa Magnetisme animal. Pari?, 1860. 



netism. He was then a resident of Vienna, but finding his 
sphere entirely too contracted, he removed, in the year 
1778, to Paris, where all his most noted and notorious ope- 
rations were carried on. In a short time public attention 
was directed to the pretended influences of the universal 
fluid, which he asserted was so subtle as to penetrate all 
bodies without losing any of its activity, — could be em- 
ployed by the physician for provoking or directing crises 
in disease or for facilitating the action of remedies. With 
the view of attaining notoriety, which is equivalent to pro- 
fit in the case of every quack, he approached the Academy 
of Sciences. But, although Le Roy, the president, seemed 
favorable to an examination, this was refused. The Royal 
Society of Medicine was then asked to examine into the 
nature of certain cures which he was producing, under the 
agency of this wonderful fluid, but Vicq-d'Azyr, the per- 
manent secretary, informed him, that having no knowledge 
of the anterior condition of his patients, they could give no 
judgment on the subject. 

Deslon — the physician in ordinary to the Count d'Artois 
— was attracted to Mesmer, and worked in company with 
him. Large apartments were selected for the treatment of 
the sick or those conceiving themselves sick. In order to 
accommodate the poor, as well as the rich, a tree, at the end 
of the Rue de Bondy, was specially charged with the fluid, 
and, around it, at all hours of the day might be seen crowds 
of persons, strong in faith, whatever might be said of their 
bodily infirmities. The number of the rich, demanding 
the attention of Mesmer, became so great that he conceived 
a special means of affecting crowds without the necessity 
of manipulating in each case, and this consisted in the baquet 
— a tub or bucket, containing a mixture of pounded glass 
and iron filings, on which were laid layers of bottles filled 
with water arranged as radii around a centre, — one layer 
having the necks turned outwards and the next vice versa; 
— the baquet was nearly filled with water. It was covered 
with a circular lid of oak, pierced with holes, through 
which protruded bent rods of glass or iron, one end termi- 



nating in the water and the other pointed so that it could 
be applied to the part of the body affected. Around the 
baquet the parties undergoing treatment were seated, each 
holding his rod, and being loosely connected with the ba- 
quet by a cord. A more ridiculous scene cannot be con- 
ceived than this, especially when we imagine the arch- 
quack solemnly moving around the circle, clad in a lilac 
robe, manipulating some, touching others with his rod, and 
generally facilitating the operations of the fluid when it ap- 
peared slow and tedious. Figuier says, " mesmerism with- 
out the baquet would have been like nobility without ar- 
morial bearings, poetry without images, rhetoric without 
figures, diplomacy without protocols, geometry without 
axioms, medicine without a clinique, or religion without 
symbols." It was in fact the very flower and fruit of the 
new science. 

The Faculty of Medicine taking the connection of Des- 
lon — one of its members — with Mesmer, into consideration, 
suspended him for one year from its roll, with prospective 
expulsion if he should not disavow his published observa- 
tions on animal magnetism. The Faculty, however, in- 
jured itself and benefitted Mesmer, by pronouncing him a 
charlatan and impostor without giving him, what he had 
asked, an examination. Deslon had been punished for as- 
sociating with a charlatan, but the latter character was not 
proven upon Mesmer. In the next Spring, Mesmer an- 
nounced his intention of leaving France, which was pro- 
tested against not only by his infatuated patients, but even 
by Marie- Antoinette. The French government offered to 
constitute a commission for an examination of the subject, 
but on afterwards modifying the proposition, so as to dis- 
pense with the examination, but offering him an annuity of 
20,000 livres, and 10,000 livres to pay for the rent of a 
house, in which he should instruct persons, three to be 
named by the government, in the principles of his discove- 
ry, Mesmer declined, with a number of ridiculous reasons 
for non-acceptance, and among these the fact that " he 
wanted territorial property rather than money." 



After Mesmer had left Paris, Deslon acted the part of 
iatro-hierophant. AtMesmer's sessions, when his baquets 
were surrounded with anxious patients, the soothing sounds 
of the harmonica were used, Deslon employed the piano 
forte, and an orchestra at times executed expressive sympo- 
nies, or vocal music lent its aid to the general soothing in- 
fluences of the magnetic saloon. The magnetic condition 
was marked with fits of laughter, yawnings, chills or 
sweats, " but, most often, with what was considered a hap- 
py symptom, motions and agitations of the intestines of a 
nature easy to understand, when we recollect that Mesmer 
almost always had taken care to administer to his patients 
a slightly laxative potion of cream of tartar." Females 
were the first who showed any additional effects of an in- 
fluence on the nervous system ; painfal groans, floods of 
tears and frightful singultus, rattling respiration and hip- 
pocratic countenance suggestive of suffocation, — these were 
followed by convulsions. The most endiablees (the word is 
excellent, we dare not attempt its translation) were carried 
into a chamber provided with matresses and cushions on 
the floor, and with wadded walls. Here they could indulge 
in all the fantastic movements of hysteria, without injuring 
themselves or disturbing others. We do not know enough 
of the secret history of this chamber to endorse it as the 
temple of Vesta, probabilities incline us to another opin- 
ion on the subject. 

Mesmer, having returned to Paris, a subscription was 
raised to form a class, to whom he should impart instruc- 
tion in his discovery. About this time he treated Court 
de Gebelin, and making a warm partizan of him, a species 
of masonic lodge was formed, called "the Order of Har- 
mony," with its emblem, consisting of a burning altar, un- 
der a starry sky with the full moon, and the motto omnia 
in pondere et mensurd. 

The famous commission, of which Franklin, Le Iioy, 
Bailly and others were members, was appointed by the 
king, March 12, 1784 to investigate the reality of the soi- 
disant magnetism. Inasmuch as this commission pre- 



ferred to deal with Deslon rather than with Mesmer, the 
latter protested, but Bailly insisted upon it that the princi- 
ples of the two were the same. Mesmer, then by a bold- 
stroke determined to push his opponents to the wall, — he 
published the names of the first hundred members of the 
Society of Harmony. These included La Fayette, Mon- 
tesquieu, Noailles and others of the highest aristocratic 
circles. Their names were supposed sufficient to stamp 
mesmerism as certainly genteel, if not true, and, at the 
same time, to throw discredit upon Deslon and those who 
held with him. The latter, however, could boast the 
names of twenty one of the Faculty in the list of his eleves. 
This boast attracted the attention of the Faculty, who 
forthwith struck the names of such members from their 
roll, declaring that compertum est M. Deslon et quosdam 
hujusce saluberrimi ordinis doctores, jurisjurandi ac virtutum 
quae medieum decent immemores, dedisse nomen novae etfor- 
midolosae circulatorum militiae, quae facile credulos vand tuen- 
dae sanitatis spe, delusos mortales detinens, civium saluti, bonis 
moribus etfortunis, abstrusas molitur insidias. 

Bailly's report had to do with three things promised by 
Deslon, 1, to determine the existence of animal magnetism, 
2, to communicate his knowledge of this subject, 3, to 
prove its utility in the cure of the sick. The first point 
was difficult to explain, since it must rest either on asser- 
tion or on an exhibition of its effects, the second would 
only be of service in showing that Deslon was an adept, — 
therefore, the third alone could engage the attention of 
the commission. The members soon became weary of the 
close examination required in investigating the pretended 
remedial influences, and they proceeded to examine more 
particularly the physical phenomena exhibited by those 
under mesmeric influence. The convulsions attracted their 
attentions, and they did not hesitate to say that there 
seemed some powerful influence affecting the sick, of 
which the magnetizer appeared to be the sole depository. 
They desired experiments should be made on themselves. 
Deslon himself acted as operator. " But although magne- 



8 

tism was energetic in its action on the multitude, it was 
calm and serene with the savants of the Academy and the 
Faculty." 

At length it was determined to experiment at Passy on 
persons really sick ; most of them experienced no effect 
whatever. An effort being made to mesmerize Franklin, 
his secretary and his two nieces, proved also a failure. The 
Commission reported that, "feeling, imagination and imi- 
tation were the true causes of the effects attributed to this 
new agent known by the name of animal magnetism ; and 
that the use of the so-called magnetism must produce only 
injurious effects." This report, dated August 11, 1784, 
was followed by one from the Eoyal Society (Aug. 16, 
1784). After the publication of the report, Mesmer's rep- 
utation began to decline, and in the course of 1785 he left 
Paris, visiting it again several times, during one of which 
visits he met Bailly on the way to his execution and cour- 
teously saluted him. The charlatan had lived his day, — 
the rest of his natural life was spent in luxurious obscurity, 
until March 15, 1815, when he died in Switzerland. 

We have given, somewhat in detail, the history of Mes- 
mer, and his connection with this pretended discovery. It 
is not possible within the limits of this article to dwell 
upon all the phases which animal magnetism assumed un- 
der its cultivators. In 1785, the Marquis de Puysegur dis- 
covered artificial somnambulism, which revolutionized the 
whole practice of mesmerism. This became immensely 
popular with military men. " The descriptions given of 
the phenomena of this somnambulism abound in details 
absolutely incredible, and yet attested by thousands of 
honorable, disinterested witnesses." In 1787 Dr. Petetin 
of Lyons discovered how an artificial catalepsy could be 
produced by means of animal magnetism, the cause of 
which condition he considered due to an electric fluid 
which, proceeding from the brain, was directed by the par 
vagum towards the stomach and there exercised its effects. 
Eberhard Gmelin, the physiologist, inclined to the same 
opinion. 



9 

The subject having been brought before the Academy of 
Medicine again, through the experiments of Dupotet and 
others, a permanent Commission was appointed on the 
subject (Feb. 28, 1826), which prepared a report that was 
presented in June, 1831. This report, made by Husson 
and never either discussed or adopted by the Academy, 
admitted the existence of certain phenomena which could 
not be explained. It became " the pride and joy of the 
magnetizers." Six years afterwards, the Academy was 
obliged to undertake a re-examination of the subject, in 
consequence of attention having been directed to the pain- 
less performance of painful operations on persons under 
the mesmeric influence. 

A Commission, consisting of Roux, Bouillaud, H. Clo- 
quet, Pelletier, Dubois, Caventou and three others, was 
appointed to report upon certain facts which were alleged 
by Berna — a young mesmerizer — to occur in his practice. 
Their report was handed in, July 17, 1837, and was deci- 
dedly adverse to all the pretensions of Berna. This report 
brought out a paper from Husson, who felt that his credit 
was at stake, but the Academy adopted the report of the 
Commission, which had been written by Dubois. The 
disturbance, created at this time, induced Dr. Burdin, in 
September of the same year, to offer a prize of 3,000 francs 
to the somnambulist, who could read without the use of 
his eyes, of light or of touch. The Academy accepted the 
award of this prize, and Dubois, Double, Chomel, Husson, 
Louis, Gerardin and Moreau were appointed to superintend. 
But two persons accepted the challenge of Burdin, M. Pi- 
geaire of Montpellier and Dr. Hublier. These failed to 
perform that which they promised. The failure was so 
complete that in 1840 Double recommended to the Acade- 
my of Medicine, " that it should abstain from bestowing 
any attention to the subject of Animal Magnetism, in the 
future, just as the Academy of Sciences refused to occupy 
itself with the quadrature of the circle and perpetual mo- 
tion. This proposition was adopted by the Academy, * * 
* and since the year 1840, when this edict of ostracism was 

2 



10 

passed, the Academy lias paid no attention to the subject, 
although that would not prove that it might not take it up 
to-morrow." 

We do not care to present any details of the history of 
Mesmerism in England or the United States. They would 
not differ materially from those belonging to its history in 
France. Phenomena were frequently exhibited, which 
could not be explained as mere tricks, or the results of 
self-deception, and yet were not intelligible with the adop- 
tion of the theories presented by those who had attempted 
their investigation. In modern hypnotism we have similar 
phenomena, freed from mysterious surroundings, which 
may enable us to pilot our way through the stormy waters 
of mesmerism. " The same physiological data explain also 
a host of pretended supernatural events, which general his- 
tory has handed down or the special history of prodigies 
has collected in the annals of science. It is easy to find 
among different peoples, various means of enchantment, 
fascination, &c, which may be considered as of the same 
nature as those provoked by the nervous sleep. The actions 
and heroes of modern thaumaturgy are thus despoiled of 
all their supernatural prestige. The state of extatic illu- 
mination of a crowd of individuals, and sometimes of en- 
tire populations, which formerly so gravely embarrassed 
scientific criticism, is no longer a great mystery ; the mar- 
vellous vanishes from this dark territory when science 
plants a foot upon it." 

Hypnotism was discovered by Dr. Braid of Manchester, 
in 1841. This word was employed to indicate the process 
by which a person is thrown into a somnambulic sleep. 
It consists in holding a bright object, between the thumb 
and middle fingers of the left hand, from six to twelve 
inches before the eyes, above the forehead, so that the per- 
son will be compelled to make some slight exertion with 
the eyes in order to look at it. The attention must be 
solely directed to the object. At first the pupils contract, 
afterwards they dilate. After ten or fifteen seconds have 
elapsed, on raising the legs or arms gently, a disposition 



11 

will be perceived on the part of the patient, if he has been 
strongly affected, to retain them in the position they have 
been placed. Special sensations, such as that of warmth 
or cold, the muscular sense and certain of the mental fac- 
ulties are at first greatly exalted, as is the case in alcoholic 
stimulation. This is followed by a depression greater than 
occurs in natural sleep ; the special sensations may instan- 
taneously disappear, and the muscles assume, on the one 
hand, the most tonic rigidity or extreme mobility. In or- 
der to remove the cataleptic condition, it is only necessary 
to direct a slight current of air upon the rigid organ. 

Braid claimed to be able to perform operations on pa- 
tients in this hypnotic state. Azam of Bordeaux had 
made experiments on patients to prove their insensibility to 
pain in this condition, but did not divulge tho results ob- 
tained until 1859, when he communicated them to Broca 
of Paris. The latter immediately determined to employ 
Hypnotism in a surgical operation, with the view of test- 
ing this insensibility. The first operation was the opening 
of a very painful abscess, which was performed without 
any consciousness of the operation. Yelpeau announced 
this to the Academy, Dec. 5, 1859, since which time, gen- 
eral attention has been given to it in France by physiolo- 
gists. Further investigations have only shown that the 
abolition of sensibility is confined to the peripheral nerves, 
so that hypnotism will never supplant, as an anaesthetic 
agent, either ether or chloroform. Surgically considered, 
hypnotism has been a failure, buft in a physiological point 
of view, it is of immense importance as a guide to the com- 
prehension of mesmeric phenomena. It has proven the ex- 
istence of such a state as nervous sleep. 

Figuier presents some prominent facts which have at- 
tracted the attention of science, and which evidently are to 
be classed with those of Hypnotism. Prominent among 
these are the operations (261 in number) performed without 
pain by Dr. Esdaile in India, under what he claimed to be 
mesmerism. These were first published in 1852, and are 
undoubtedly cases of nervous sleep. The monks of Mount 



12 

Athos were said to throw themselves into protracted cata- 
leptic extacies, simply by looking fixedly at the umbilicus. 
The fakirs of India accomplish the same result by looking 
at the tip of the nose, from which, they say, after a little 
while, a bluish flame proceeds, and then the cataleptic con- 
dition occurs. The Arabs exhibit similar phenomena, and 
Dr. Eossi — physician to Halem Pacha — says that hypnot- 
ism is employed by the Egyptian sorcerers to produce 
sleep and insensibility. In the French possessions in Af- 
rica, means of fascination are employed of a like character 
by the G-zanes Arabs, and the marabouts of some of the re- 
ligious sects on the frontiers of Morocco. " On the palm 
of the hand is described, with some black coloring sub- 
stance, a circle with a black point in the centre. By fixing 
the eyes attentively on this circle for a few minutes, they 
become fatigued and begin to twinkle and get obscured ; 
soon the fatigue is followed by sleep with a species of in- 
sensibility." Another method involves the patient's gaze 
being directed to the light of a lamp behind a transparent 
bottle, filled with water. In the case of one with a nerv- 
ous temperament, palpitations of the heart and cephalalgia 
may be induced. 

The fascination which serpents are said to exercise on 
birds, &c, may possibly be explained in this way. Chick- 
ens can be hypnotized by placing them on a board, hold- 
ing the bill on the same and then drawing a line in front 
of them, in the prolongation of the bill. This was known 
in the time of Kircher* and is mentioned in his Ars magna 
lucidae et umbrae (1646). That, fixed gaze from man on 
almost all animals will render them quiet and at least for 
the time, gentle, is known to every one. 



* Gallinam pedibus vinctam in pavimentum quodpiam depone : qnae pri- 
mo quidem se captivam sentiens, alarum succussione totiusque corporis 
motu, vincula sibi injecta excutere omnibus modis laborabit ; sed irrito tan- 
dem conatu de evasione, veluti desperabunda, ad quietem se componens, vic- 
toris de arbitrio sistet. Qui eta igitur sio manente gallina, ab occulo ejus- 
dem in ipso pavimento lineara rectam creta vel alio quovis coloris genere quae 
chordae figuram referat, duces. Deinde earn compedibus solutam relinques. 
Dico quod gallina, quantumvis vinculis soluta, minime tamen avolatura sit, 
etiam si ad avolandum instimulaveris. 



13 

Having thin shown the fact that there is such a state as 
has been called nervous sleep, let us see how Figuier ap- 
plies this by way of explanation to the mesmeric phenom- 
ena. The important point, in the employment of the ba- 
quet by Mesmer, was the distraction of the mind from all 
surrounding objects and disturbing thoughts ; then the 
movements of the mesmerizer or the object on which the 
eyes were fixed, became the means of producing the hyp- 
notic effect. Mesmer operated usually on natures that were 
extremely nervous, and the appearance of convulsions in 
one case, through the power of involuntary imitation or 
expectation, would ensure the appearance of similar con- 
vulsions in nearly all, especially when they were connected 
together by a common chord, which they believed to be a 
magnetic chain. 

Should the question rise whether hypnotism would be 
sufficient to account for the violent nervous phenomena 
which required those affected to be carried into Mesmer's 
cushioned chamber, it can be met by the experience in the 
hospitals of Paris in 1860, where hypnotism produced at- 
tacks of most frightful hysteria, and experience taught the 
operators that it could not be considered an inoffensive 
amusement, in consequence of the congestion of the brain 
attending it being very dangerous in some patients. A 
case given by Gigot-Suard is, in this particular, very im- 
portant. " A nervous young girl was hypnotized with a 
pair of scissors held a few inches above the root of her 
nose. In ten minutes her sleep was complete ; as soon as 
the eyelids closed, she threw herself back in the easy chair, 
her feet projecting in the air. Her body became as a rigid 
rod. She did not utter cries, but veritable howls, which 
were from time to time, interrupted by incoherent words, 
such as cemetery, death, phantom, &c. She tore her face with 
her nails, requiring two to restrain her. The frenzy would 
change for fits of immoderate laughter, followed by tears, 
hiccoughs and new convulsions," &c. All these symptoms 
resulted from the use of a pair of scissors, held a few inch- 
es above the root of the nose. Surely Mesmer's most 
astounding phenomena were not more so than these. 



14 

Gigot-Suard has also found that it is not necessary to 
employ a brilliant object, that the contemplation of any 
object, in some cases, will produce the required effect. The 
Mesmerizers employ, instead of a brilliant object, the eyes 
of the operator; — the patient is generally seated on a chair 
somewhat lower than the operator, which results in a spe- 
cies of strabismus in addition to the ocular fatigue. The 
manipulations and other processes adopted by mesmerizers 
only accelerate the effect, by acting on the imagination and 
the nervous system. 

A comparison of the physiological phenomena of the 
mesmeric and hypnotic conditions will be quite as striking 
and demonstrative of their identity, as that of the means of 
producing these conditions has been. The following are 
common results produced in good somnambules by mes- 
merizers : " 1, insensibility of the periphery of the body ; 
2, muscular rigidity proceeding, in some cases, to catalep- 
sy, or in, others to marked relaxation of all the mus- 
cles ; 3, exaltation of the principal senses; 4, exaltation of 
the intelligence." Now the three first results are common 
with individuals in the hypnotized state, — the two first, 
indeed, furnish the proof of the existence of this state, and 
the third — hyperaesthesia— is thus mentioned by Azam : 
" Hypnotic hyperaesthesia affects all the senses, except 
sight, but it is specially manifested in the sensation of tem- 
perature and in the muscular sense, the existence of which 
it demonstrates in an irrefragable manner. The hearing 
becomes so acute that a conversation can be heard in a 
lower story ; the subjects become very much fatigued by 
this acuteness ; their countenances express the pain, which, 
the noise of vehicles or that of the voice, gives them ; the 
sound of a watch is heard at twenty-five feet distance. 
The sense of smell is developed and acquires the acuteness 
possessed by animals. The patients draw back with dis- 
gust from odors that no one else perceives. If one has 
used ether, or made an autopsy three or four days before, 
he cannot deceive these patients. * * * The muscu- 
lar sense acquires such delicacy, that I have seen repeated 



15 

before me the strange things which are related of spontane- 
ous somnambulism, and of many of the so-called magnetic 
subjects. I have seen them writing very correctly, when a 
large book was held between the eyes an d the paper, or thread- 
ing a very fine needle under the same circumstances, and 
walk into an apartment with their eyes absolute^ closed and 
bandaged, — all these without any other real guide than the 
resistance of the air and the perfect precision of movements 
guided by the hyperaesthetic muscular sense." 

In the condition attained by the magnetic somnambule, 
it is alleged that peculiar powers of knowing the thoughts 
are possessed. It is difficult to argue on this point, because 
so difficult to get at the real truth in the testimony adduced. 
It is impossible that an individual can enjoy, in such a con- 
dition, privileges which are foreign to human nature. This 
is admitted from past experience and by our reason. The 
burden of proof lies on the other side. "But the exalta- 
tion, the remarkable development that the principal senses 
attain in this physiological condition, and the not less 
striking exaltation of the intellectual faculties (which un- 
doubtedly results from this same transient activity of the 
principal senses) render the individual capable of many 
acts and thoughts which are interdicted in the normal state. 
He can reflect, compare, recollect better than when in a 
waking condition ; but he can not exceed the limits of his 
faculties or of the knowledge previously received. He de- 
ceives himself every time he wishes to depart from the 
sphere that nature assigns our faculties. * * * The 
transient excitation of the senses of the magnetic somnam- 
bule will explain then, according to our opinion, the phe- 
nomena which magnetisers have called suggestion, or pene- 
tration of thought. When a magnetizer declares that his 
somnambule will obey an order mentally expressed by him- 
self, and when the somnambule, which is, however, some- 
what rare, accomplishes this tour deforce, it is not impossi- 
ble to explain the apparent miracle, which, if it were real, 
would reverse all the notions of physiology and, we might 
say, all the known laws of animate nature. In this case, 



16 

a noise, a sound, a gesture, any sign whatever, an impres- 
sion inappreciable to all the assistants , is sufficient to the 
somnambule, in the extraordinary condition of tension of 
his principal senses, to make him understand, without any 
supernatural aid, the thought which the magnetizer wishes 
to communicate." 

Although the facts thus elicited enable us to recognize 
the identity, or at least the close relationship, of Mesmer- 
ism and Hypnotism, and to refer them both to a physio- 
logical condition, still the explanation of this physiological 
condition is wanted. Honest study may now furnish us 
results which could not have been attained in the last cen- 
tury when Mesmer first attracted attention by his singular 
phenomena. Physiology and Psychology must go hand 
in hand in the investigation. So long as the facts were 
mixed with charlatanry, it was difficult to attract the atten- 
tion of the students of either science to this investigation. 
What is the physiological condition under which these 
phenomena are produced ? The terms, magnetic somnam- 
bulism, nervous sleep, hypnotic state are only names, but they 
indicate a condition, the producing cause of which is as cer- 
tainly open to study as its effects. 



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